Composite wood golf club head with metal face

ABSTRACT

A golf club head includes a main body which is made of composite material and has a main casing with a top opening thereon. A bottom board is made of metal and is mounted on a bottom side of the main casing. A top casing covers the top opening of the main casing and fastens its edge to the periphery of the opening, and a front casing is made of metal and has a board portion and an annular wall having an end fasten to the front side of the main casing.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The present invention relates to a golf club, and more particularly to a composite wood golf club head with a metal face.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] A conventional golf club head, especially to a wood club head, made of composite material, such as carbon composite, has capacities of lighter weight, higher strength and easy formation etc. But, composite material has poor capacity of wear-resisting such that the composite golf club head will easy to be worn at the face, the portion of the golf club head contacts the ball when swinging. Therefore, an ideal golf club head will be made of composite material with a metal face. These golf club heads usually had a problem of weak structure strength at the connecting portion where the metal face is fixed with the composite body of the head. Such metal face usually had its back side, especially on the peripheral of the back side thereof, contacted on the body of the head so that it will reduce the deflection of the metal face when the metal face hits the ball, thus it can hardly drive the ball further.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0003] The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a wood golf club head with a body made of composite material and a hitting face made of metal and firmly connected to the composite body, which provides a well spring-like effect capable of hitting the ball farther.

[0004] According to the objective of the present invention, a golf club head comprises a main body which is made of composite material and has a main casing with a top opening thereon. A bottom board is made of metal and is mounted on a bottom side of the main casing. A top casing covers the top opening of the main casing and fastens its edge to the periphery of the opening. A front casing is made of metal and has a board portion and an annular wall backwardly extended from the periphery of the board portion and having an end fasten to a front side of the main casing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0005]FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a first preferred embodiment of the present invention;

[0006]FIG. 1A is an enlarged view in part A of FIG. 1;

[0007]FIG. 1B is an enlarged view, showing an alternate structure of the connecting portion of the main body and the annular frame;

[0008]FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the first preferred embodiment of the present invention, showing the golf club head hitting a ball;

[0009]FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a second preferred embodiment of the present invention, and

[0010]FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a third preferred embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0011] Please refer to FIG. 1, the first preferred embodiment of the present invention provides a wood golf club head 10 comprising a main body 20, a bottom board 30, an annular frame 40, a top casing 50 and a front casing 60.

[0012] The main body 20 is made of composite material, such as carbon fiber, glass fiber or Kevlar fiber composite material etc. The main body 20 has a main casing 21 and a neck (not shown) at a side of the main casing 21. The main casing 21 has a front wall 22, a bottom wall 23, a top opening 24 at the top side thereof and an annular recess 25 at the edge of the top opening 24.

[0013] The bottom board 30 is embedded in the bottom wall 23 of the main casing 21 and its exterior surface is exposed outside. The exposed surface of the bottom board 30 is flush with the surface of the bottom wall 23 of the main casing 21 such that the connection of the bottom board with the main casing is smooth. The bottom board 30 is made of metal and is mounted with a weight device 31 at the rear end of the interior side thereof.

[0014] The annular frame 40 is made of metal and engages at the rear end thereof with the front wall 22 of the main casing 21. The annular frame 40 has an annular slot 41 at its front end (seeing FIG. 1 A). As shown in FIG. 1A, the front portion of the annular frame is totally exposed outside. However, an alternate connection of the annular frame with the main casing is provided as shown in FIG. 1B, the periphery of the front portion of the annular frame 40′ is encased by the front wall of the main casing 21′ but the front end of the annular frame on which the annular slot is provided is exposed outside.

[0015] It has to be mentioned here, the bottom board 30, the weight device 31 and the annular frame 40 are put in a die (not shown) where mold the main body 20, such that they are mounted on the main casing 21 when the main body 20 is molded. The adhesion of the composite material which molds the main body 20 will give a help to connect the bottom board 30 and the annular frame 40 firmly, furthermore, the bottom board 30 has a bevel edge, which means the bottom board 30 has an interior side with larger dimension and an exterior side with smaller dimension, and the annular frame 40 has a larger dimension rear end that will make the bottom board 30 and the annular frame 40 fixedly fastened with the main casing 21. Please refer to FIG. 1A, the annular frame 40 further has holes 42 to be filled with the composite material of the main casing 21 therein so that the annular frame 40 has no chance to loose from the main casing 21.

[0016] The top casing 50 is made from composite material or plastics etc. The shape of the top casing 50 corresponds to the top opening 24 of the main casing 21 for covering the top opening 24 to make a closed hollow casing with the main casing 21. The top casing 50 has an annular flange 51 to be engaged with the annular recess 25 around the top opening 24 of the main casing 21. The top casing 50 is fastened to the main casing 21 by glue, such as epoxy resin.

[0017] The front casing 60 is made of metal, such as stainless, Maraging steel, titanium or titanium alloy etc. and is made from forging or pressing. The front casing 60 has a board portion 61 with its peripheral shape corresponding to the annular frame 40, transverse dents 62 at exterior surface of the board portion 61, and an annular recess 63 at peripheral portion of the back side of the board portion 61. The front casing 60 has an annular wall 64 integrally extended backwards from the periphery of the board portion 61. The extended length of the annular wall 64 is between 3 mm and 40 mm. The wall 64 has an engaging portion 65 at the distal end thereof. The front casing 60 engages its engaging portion 65 to the annular recess 41 of the annular frame 40 and is fastened with it by means of welding or glue etc., such that the front casing 60 is fixedly mounted on the front side of the main casing 21.

[0018] It has to be mentioned, the neck is for fastening a shaft (not shown). It can be molded as a unit with the main casing 21 as the preferred embodiment described, or it also can be made into an independent element to be mounted on an appropriate position of the main casing 21.

[0019] The wood golf club head 10 provided by the present invention has a composite part, including the main casing 21 and top casing 50, and a metal part, the front casing 60 (it will be a face of the golf club head 10). The composite part has the capacity of higher strength and lighter weight and the metal part has the capacity of higher wear-resisting.

[0020] The front casing 60 has the annular wall 64 fixed to the main casing 21, such that a back space 66 is left between the board portion 61 and the main casing 21 (the conventional golf club head attached its face directly to the main casing so that there is no space left between the face and the main casing) and the board portion 61 has the annular recess 63 at back side thereof, therefore the board portion 61 will have superior capacity of elasticity, i.e., the board portion 61 will have well spring-like effect (it also called “trampoline effect”) to elongate the time of the board portion 61 contacting the ball B when swinging. Thus, the wood golf club head 10 of the present invention has a well capacity of controlling ball.

[0021] The golf club head 10 is provided with the metal bottom board 30 at the bottom side thereof to be contacted with the ground when swinging. Manufacturer also can mark textures or icons on the bottom board 30. The metal bottom board 30 also can work like the weight device 31 to shift the center of gravity of the golf club head 10 to the bottom side thereof. The weight device 31 can shift the center of gravity to the rear side.

[0022] In the first preferred embodiment, the front casing 60 is connected to the composite main body 21 by means of the metal annular frame 40 interposed therebetween. The metal annular frame 40 can absorb the impact occurred on board portion 61 of the front casing 60 when swinging, except that, the front casing 60 can be welded to the annular frame 40 fixedly because of both of them are metal.

[0023]FIG. 3 shows a wood golf club head 70 of the second preferred embodiment. The wood golf club 70 is similar to the golf club head 10 of the first preferred embodiment but it has no metal annular frame. The wood golf club head 70 comprises a front casing 71 fastened to a main casing 72 directly. The main casing 71 has an annular slot 73 and the front casing 71 has an annular wall 74 to be engaged with the annular slot 73. Glue is added between the main casing 72 and the front casing 71 to fix them together. Thus, the golf club head 70 has a composite main body and a metal face.

[0024]FIG. 4 shows a wood golf club head 80 of the third preferred embodiment. The golf club head 80, similar to the first preferred embodiment, has a main body 81, a top casing 82, a bottom board 83, an annular frame 84 and a front casing 85. The main body 81 has a main casing 86, at the front side of which has a front opening 87, which means the main casing 86 has no front wall. The main casing also has a top opening 88 and a boundary portion 89 at between the front opening 87 and the top opening 88. The annular frame 84 is fixed to the main casing 86 and surrounds the front opening 87 of the main body 81. The front casing 85, having a board portion 91 and an annular wall 92, is fixed to the annular frame 84 and covers the front opening 87 to form the golf club head 80. The thickness of the board portion 91 of the front casing 85 is thicker at center region thereof and thinner at peripheral region thereof such that an annular bending portion is formed at the boundary of the board portion 91 and annular wall 92. The board portion 91 will have well spring-like effect and can prevent the annular wall 92 separating from the main casing 86 when hitting a ball. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A golf club head, comprising: a main body made of composite material and having a main casing with a top opening thereon; a bottom board, made of metal, mounted on a bottom side of said main casing and having an exterior surface exposed outside; a top casing covering said top opening of said main casing and fastening its edge to the periphery of said opening, and a front casing made of metal and having a board portion and an annular wall backwardly extended from the periphery of the board portion and having an end thereof a front side of said main casing.
 2. The golf club head as defined in claim 1, further comprising an annular frame interposed between said main casing and said front casing, wherein said annular frame has an end thereof fasten to said main casing and has an annular slot at the other end thereof to be engaged with an annular flange at the distal end of said annular wall of said front casing.
 3. The golf club head as defined in claim 1, wherein said front casing has an annular recess at the back side of the periphery of said board portion.
 4. The golf club head as defined in claim 1, wherein said board portion of said front casing has a larger thickness at the center region thereof and a smaller thickness at the peripheral region thereof.
 5. The golf club head as defined in claim 1, further comprising a weight device fixed at the bottom side of said main casing.
 6. The golf club head as defined in claim 1, wherein said top casing is made of composite material.
 7. The golf club head as defined in claim 1, wherein said main casing is provided with an annular recess at the periphery of said top opening and said top casing is provided with an annular flange to be engaged with said annular recess of said main casing.
 8. The golf club head as defined in claim 1, wherein said main casing has a front wall so that said front casing is fasten said annular wall to the periphery of said front wall.
 9. The golf club head as defined in claim 1, wherein said main casing has a front opening so that said front casing is fasten said annular wall to the periphery of said front opening.
 10. The golf club head as defined in claim 1, wherein said main body has a neck integrally mounted on the main casing of the main body. 